Chad Goeden writes for NAFSA about Rajika Bhandari’s plenary address for NAFSA’s 2014 Online Conference on "big data." Bhandari, Deputy Vice President of Research and Evaluation at IIE, challenged participants "to think critically about how 'big data' can positively impact their work as international educators," writes Goeden. "[Bhandari] brought to life the ways that institutions and campuses can successfully strategize about their decisionmaking processes by understanding and incorporating "big data" into conversations about context, benchmarking, and campus advocacy."

The Institute of International Education (IIE) is delighted to invite you to nominate your program for the 2015 Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education. IIE created these awards to honor outstanding initiatives in international higher education by IIENetwork member universities and colleges. IIE's Heiskell Awards showcase the most innovative and successful models for internationalization of campuses, study abroad, and international exchange partnerships in practice today. There are four award categories for 2015: Internationalizing the Campus, Study Abroad, International Partnerships, and Internationalizing the Community College. 

Read more about the award categories and download the application at: www.iie.org/Who-We-Are/IIENetwork-Membership/Heiskell-Awards. 

If you have any questions about nominating for the Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education, please an e-mail to HeiskellAwards@iie.org.

A recent post in ICEF Monitor looks at student transition to the labor market in order to understand how it relates to international student recruitment. Various polls and studies are provided to illustrate how understanding the global market of students and employers can be a source of strategic advantage for education marketers.

Transnational education (TNE) is growing not only in scale but so are issues of quality. These challenges of ensuring quality have become even more complex with the emergence of MOOCs, blended learning and competency-based models. An article by Dr. Rahul Choudaha, published by the European Association for International Education (EAIE), addresses questions about how institutions can adapt to a changing scale and complexity of TNE activities.

FundingUSStudy.org is the leading source of funding information for international students who are researching study abroad opportunities in the United States.

IntensiveEnglishUSA.org serves as an interactive database that international students and educational advising centers can access to find intensive English programs throughout the United States.